AN  APPROACH  TO  ART 


?•  . 


MARY  MULLEN 


. K-.  < 


• r 


.>■ 


'i 


AN  APPROACH  TO  ART 


BY 

MARY  MULLEN 


WITH  FIFTY 


REPRODUCTIONS 


PUBLISHED  BY 

THE  BARNES  FOUNDATION 


MERION,  PA. 

1923 


THE  BARNES  FOUNDATION 

MERION,  PA. 


Chartered,  December  4,  1922. 


I^OARD  OF  Directors. 


Joseph  Lapsley  Wilson 
Albert  C.  Barnes  . 
IvAura  L.  Barnes 
N.  E.  Mullen 
Mary  Mullen 


Director  of  Arboretum 

President 

Vice-President 

Secretary  and  Treasurer 

Associate  Director  of  Education 


John  Dewey 

. Director  of  Education 

IvAURENCE  BuERMEYER  . 

. Associate  Director  of  Education 

L.  W Geiger  .... 

. Recording  Secretary 

Paul  Guillaume 

. Eoreign  Secretary 

John  W.  Prince  . 

. Curator  of  Arboretum 

Phomas  H.  Stevenson  . 

. Curator  of  Paintiiigs 

Roberts  and  Montgomery,  Attorne}'s. 


.s 


P R EFACE 


The  plan  outlined  herein  is  based  upon  the  generally 
accepted  beliefs  that  life  is  primarily  and  chiefly  a matter 
of  feeling  and  that  art  in  any  form  is  a fragment  of  life  pre- 
sented to  us  enriched  in  feelings  by  means  of  the  creative 
spirit  of  the  artist;  that  makes  art  and  life  synonymous. 

A sense  of  beauty  is  so  common  in  human  beings  that  it  could 
rank  almost  with  the  instincts  in  universality.  Unfortunately, 
the  practical  demands  of  life  too  often  suppress  it,  or  it  becomes 
so  overlaid  with  traditional  and  irrational  dogmas  that  it  never 
attains  to  an  adequate  development.  The  ways  and  means  of 
making  the  sense  of  beauty  contribute  to  the  happiness  of 
daily  life  could  obviously  be  best  approached  by  a study  of  the 
factors  to  the  situation:  I'he  attributes  of  human  nature,  the 
objective  qualities  of  a work  of  art,  and  the  aesthetic  experi- 
ence itself  which  results  when  man  and  art  come  in  contact. 

The  intention  of  this  book  is  to  serve  as  a primer  to 
people  who  have  a sense  of  beauty  sufficiently  active  to 
prompt  them  to  wish  to  see  in  works  of  art  and  in  life  itself 
those  aesthetic  aspects  which  are  too  often  overlooked.  I he 
plan  as  presented  is  based  upon  an  experience  of  more  than 
ten  years’  continuous  practice  as  a part  of  a systematic  educa- 
tional plan  which  accepted  the  modern  definition  that  education 
means  movement,  direction,  growth,  development.  A large  and 
varied  collection  of  paintings  and  a circulating  library  of  good 
literature  gradually  grew  as  the  system  developed.  The  only 
requirement  for  participation  was  an  interest  in  the  thing 
itself,  for  itself,  and  for  as  long  a time  as  that  interest 
sustained  itself  by  its  own  power.  That  Interest  was  the 
sense  of  beauty  cultivated  for  the  sake  of  the  values  it  con- 
tributed to  human  happiness. 

The  plan  as  presented  in  this  book  can  be  only  of  the 
barest  essentials  which  the  experience  proved  are  indispens- 

5 


able.  It  represents  the  ideas  of  many  writers,  artists,  edu- 
cators of  widely-divergent  viewpoints  and  only  such  of  their 
ideas  as  ht  into  the  solution  of  the  specific  problem.  The 
general  foundation  of  the  plan  is  based  upon  the  psychology 
evolved  by  William  James,  John  Dewey,  George  Santayana 
and  l^ertrand  Russell.  But  the  structure  owes  its  identity 
to  individual  contributions  to  ps}^chology,  aesthetics  and 
education  made  by  Havelock  Ellis,  Roger  Fry,  Bernard  Hart, 
Laurence  Buermeyer,  Albert  C.  Barnes  and  others.  Some 
of  the  best  and  most  practical  ideas  originated  with  the 
students  themselves  as  results  of  their  own  reactions  to 
the  environment.  If  the  approach  to  the  study  of  art 
as  stated  in  this  book  proves  serviceable  to  others  it  will 
be  because  experience  has  again  proved  to  be  the  best 
teacher. 


c 


AN  APPROACH  TO  ART 


Art  and  It  is  interesting  to  tr}'  to  get  a definition  of  the 
Imitation  art  of  painting  from  people  whom  one  meets  in 
the  every-day  walks  of  life.  Most  of  them  think 
of  painting  as  an  imitation  of  natural  objects,  hut  when 
questioned  further  confess  that  they  like  many  pictures  that 
do  not  copy  nature.  Imitations  are  disappointing  in  all  phases 
of  life  and  the  art-world  is  no  exception;  there  must  he  a more 
valid  reason  why  the  pictorial  arts  give  us  so  much  pleasure. 
We  know  human  nature  well  enough  to  be  quite  sure  that 
painting  could  not  have  secured  such  a firm  hold  on  men  and 
held  its  place  m their  lives  through  many  centuries,  if  it  were 
merely  a likeness  of  natural  objects.  An  imitation  is  never 
satisfying;  the  feeling  that  it  isn’t  true  or  real  disturbs  us,  we 
desire  things  that  we  can  depend  upon.  Dependability  is  one 
of  the  needs  of  human  existence;  in  our  world  of  constant 
change,  we  try  by  all  means  in  our  power  to  make  some  things 
permanent  and  stable  so  that  we  know  just  what  to  expect 
from  them.  For  instance,  we  could  not  get  a sense  of  satis- 
faction from  an  imitation  diamond  in  a ring.  We  know  that 
sooner  or  later  it  will  lose  its  lustre  and  show  itself  for  what 
it  is;  we  have  a feeling  that  it  is  not  real.  If  we  have  a genuine 
stone  we  know  that  it  will  always  retain  its  brilliance;  we  may 
have  to  polish  it  from  time  to  time,  but  we  know  that  we  can 
depend  upon  it. 

It  is  just  the  same  in  regard  to  art.  If  art  is  only  an 
imitation  of  nature,  then  nature  would  be  much  more  sat- 
isfying than  art  and  art  would  not  he  worth  all  the  bother 
that  has  been  made  about  it.  If  art  is  nothing  more  than 
a likeness  of  a natural  object,  then  the  highest  praise  we 
could  pay  an  artist  would  he  to  say  that  he  is  skih^ul  in  copy- 
ing nature  and  we  would  then  look  upon  his  products  as 
objects  to  excite  our  wonder  because  of  their  skillful  work- 
manship. I^ut  we  know  that  art  in  itself  is  very  much  worth 
while,  that  it  gives  us  a great  deal  of  pleasure,  that  it  is 
wonderfully  satisfying. 


Instincts  and  We  all  know  that  human  beings  have  instincts; 
Imagination  that  is,  when  we  become  aware  of  certain 
objects  or  situations  in  the  world,  they  arouse 
in  us  particular  feelings  which  are  termed  emotions  and, 
without  stopping  to  think  or  reason  about  them,  we  act  in 
a certain  way.  If  we  are  walking  along  the  street  and  see  a 
run-away  horse  coming  toward  us,  we  at  once  have  the  feeling 
or  emotion  of  fear  and  turn  immediately  and  run  in  another 
direction  to  get  out  of  its  way;  we  do  not  stop  and  wonder 
why  the  horse  ran  away  or  why  he  happened  to  come  in  our 
direction;  we  simply  start  and  run.  Or,  we  might  notice  a 
crowd  of  people  who  seem  very  much  interested  in  something 
going  on  in  their  midst.  Immediately  the  emotion  of  wonder 
is  aroused  and  our  instinct  of  curiosity  makes  us  try  to  find 
out  what  is  causing  the  excitement,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
it  probably  does  not  concern  us. 

Animals  as  well  as  human  beings  have  many  different 
instincts,  but  man  is  superior  to  the  animal  in  that  after  a 
thing  has  happened  he  can  recall  the  whole  incident;  even 
when  this  recollection  of  past  experience  is  simply  to  serve 
a present  need,  as  when  we  try  to  recall  a street  and  num- 
ber a man  has  given  us;  but  sometimes  we  recall  the  past 
because  we  enjoy  repeating  the  experience,  and  such  recall 
undertaken  for  its  own  sake  is  imagination,  or  the  germ  of 
imagination.  In  this  way  a person  lives  a dual  life,  one 
actual  and  the  other  imaginative.  The  great  difference 
between  these  two  lives  is  that  m the  actual  existence,  the 
instinctive  reactions,  such  as  the  flight  from  danger,  are 
of  the  utmost  importance  and  we  bend  all  our  energies  to 
accomplish  what  our  instincts  prompt  us  to  do.  But  in  the 
imaginative  life  we  do  not  have  to  act;  all  we  have  to  do  is 
to  use  our  imagination  to  recall  what  has  happened,  how  we 
felt  and  what  might  have  happened.  In  real  life  all  our 
attention  is  centered  on  action;  in  the  imaginative  life,  we 
are  interested  in  what  we  see  and  feel  and,  since  we  do  not 
have  to  act,  we  see  a great  deal  more  of  what  is  going  on 
within  our  line  of  vision  and  we  have  time  to  think  about 
our  feelings. 

['he  fact  that  in  real  life  all  our  attention  is  centered  on 
action  can  be  well-illustrated  by  the  moving  pictures.  If  we 
see  Tom  Mix  on  the  screen  and  he  gets  into  a fight,  we  are 
conscious  of  all  the  details  of  the  scene.  We  notice  what  each 


8 


character  is  doing.  Perhaps  there  will  be  people  behind  trees 
waiting  for  a chance  to  shoot  him,  perhaps  in  the  distance  we 
see  a rescuing  party  coming  along  at  full  gallop;  somebody 
else  is  trying  to  catch  his  horse;  we  take  note  of  the  landscape. 
But  suppose  we  were  watching  a fight  in  actual  life  we  would 
he  most  likely  so  concerned  about  possible  damage  to  one 
of  the  participants  that  our  attention  would  be  concentrated 
upon  summoning  a policeman  to  stop  the  hght  or  even  a 
physician  to  treat  the  injured.  In  the  two  cases  our  feelings 
would  be  entirely  different.  In  the  actual  hght  our  emotions 
would  be  so  strong  that  we  would  not  think  about  them  at  all; 
we  would  be  relatively  unconscious  of  them.  But  in  the  mov- 
ing pictures,  while  we  do  experience  the  emotions  that  the 
actors  on  the  screen  are  depicting,  they  are  very  much  weaker 
than  our  emotions  in  actual  life  and  we  can  think  about  them 
and  examine  them.  If  we  see  a train  wreck  in  the  movies,  we 
may  feel  a certain  amount  of  pity  for  the  victims  but  since 
we  know  that  it  is  only  a moving  picture,  that  nobody  is  hurt 
and  that  it  is  not  necessary  for  us  to  act  in  order  to  relieve 
suffering,  our  sense  of  pity  is  not  nearly  so  strong  as  if  we 
had  seen  an  actual  train  wreck;  we  are  not  living  our  actual 
life  in  the  movies,  we  are  living  our  imaginative  life.  We 
use  our  imagination  in  order  to  understand  why  the  different 
characters  act  as  they  do;  we  try  to  imagine  their  feelings 
by  thinking  of  how  we  would  feel  and  what  we  would  do  in 
their  place  and  if  they  do  not  act  as  we  think  they  should, 
then  we  try  to  interpret  their  behavior  in  some  other  way. 

Different  Kinds  All  human  beings  live  this  secondary  im- 
of  Imagination  aginative  life  to  some  extent;  but  not  all 
flight  of  fancy,  not  all  non-practical  con- 
templation, constitutes  the  imaginative  life  that  gives  birth 
to  art.  Idle  day-dreaming,  “building  castles  in  Spam,’^  is 
imagination  and  if  given  free  play,  interferes  with  the  every- 
day duties  of  life;  we  cannot  depend  on  people  who  lose  sight 
of  the  workaday  world.  If  this  imaginative  life  is  carried  to 
the  extreme,  we  term  the  people  insane.  In  asylums  there 
are  many  patients  who  are  living  the  life  of  the  imagination 
entirely.  One  man  will  tell  us  that  he  is  a king  and  all  the 
people  about  him  are  his  subjects,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
he  works  just  like  the  other  inmates;  and  nothing  we  can  say 
or  do  will  convince  him  that  he  is  not  a king. 

9 


The  actual  and  the  imaginative  lives  must  be  combined 
if  we  are  to  remain  normal,  balanced  people  — either  while  we 
are  at  work,  or  play.  For  instance:  Suppose  an  emergency 

arises  where  one  of  the  large  tanks  in  a factory  has  to  be 
emptied  more  quickly  than  usual.  The  manager  has  to  make 
rapid  plans  as  to  just  what  she  will  do,  how  many  girls  she  will 
need,  at  which  machines  she  will  place  each  girl,  how  she  will 
place  her  stock,  etc.  In  order  to  make  these  plans,  she  uses 
imagination  and  experience— her  imagination,  guided  by  her 
past  experience,  forms  a picture  in  her  mind  as  to  how  she  will 
accomplish  this  work.  If  her  plans  work  out  just  as  she  hoped 
they  would,  the  accomplished  result  has  in  it  an  aesthetic 
element. 

In  making  plans  for  our  leisure  so  that  it  will  be  more  satis- 
factory and  sensible,  the  imagination,  influenced  by  the  intel- 
ligence, prompts  us,  for  example,  to  read  worth-while  books 
instead  of  trashy  ones;  to  look  at  good  pictures  and  try  to  find 
out  something  about  them;  to  go  to  the  theatre  when  the  play 
is  diverting  and  intelligent  and  not  merely  to  kill  time. 

I'he  artist  has  one  great  advantage  in  his  work  over  the 
ordinary  person:  he  is  free  to  express  himself  in  any  way  he 
wishes;  his  work  is  not  bound  by  moral  obligations,  he  does 
not  have  to  work  according  to  a rule;  he  does  not  have  to  try 
to  please  anybody;  he  is  absolutely  free  to  express  himself. 
But  there  is  after  all  one  condition  that  he  must  fulfill  if  his 
art  IS  to  be  appreciated  by  others;  he  must  compose  it  m a 
form  that  can  be  understood  b}^  the  observer:  otherwise  the 
latter  will  be  baffled  and  it  will  mean  nothing  to  him. 

Only  when  the  object  about  which  the  imagination  plays 
has  m Itself  a special  interest  for  the  observer  and  gives  him 
a pleasurable  emotion,  can  it  be  the  basis  upon  which  the 
imagination  builds  up  a work  of  art.  But  the  artist  does 
not  lose  all  contact  with  the  actual  world;  in  his  conception 
of  the  form  which  he  wishes  his  work  of  art  to  assume,  there 
will  be  practical  questions  involved,  even  though  it  is  not 
necessary  to  act  at  that  very  moment.  If  the  artist  wishes 
to  paint  a landscape  and  with  the  help  of  his  imagination 
plans  the  form  in  his  mind,  he  does  not  lose  sight  of  the 
fact  that  he  will  have  to  place  the  objects  in  the  landscape 
in  certain  relation  to  each  other.  Practical  things  may  not 
be  in  the  foreground  of  his  consciousness,  but  it  is  a habit 
of  human  beings  to  think  of  objects  in  terms  of  their  uses 

10 


even  when  there  is  no  necessity  to  use  them.  This  practical 
habit  explains  the  clifhculty  most  people  have  when  they 
endeavor  to  contemplate  an  object  for  the  enjoyment  of  its 
heaun^  alone;  as  for  instance  if  our  attention  is  called  to 
the  lovely  lines  of  a chair,  to  its  color,  its  design,  we  observe 
it  so  that  we  may  enjoy  its  beauty;  but  we  do  not  forget 
that  the  chair  is  to  sit  in. 

A sharp  distinction  must  be  made  between  the  imagina- 
tion that  results  in  creation  and  the  imagination  that  is  idle 
day-dreaming.  We  have  emphasized  the  fact  that  in  real 
life  action  is  paramount;  but  in  saying  that  in  the  imag- 
inative life  there  is  no  necessity  for  action,  we  do  not  mean 
that  the  creative  imaginative  life  is  absolutely  passive  and 
all  we  have  to  do  is  to  let  our  fancies  float  aimlessly  about; 
that  is  day-dreaming  and  leads  to  no  real  enjoyment;  it  is 
mere  effortless  contemplation,  a sham  and  a counterfeit. 
The  creative  imagination  is  alert  and  active,  it  is  in  constant 
contact  with  the  practical  world,  but  its  aim  is  to  discover 
new  aspects  of  life  and  to  embody  those  discoveries  in  fit 
and  meaningful  expressions.  It  is  this  creative  imagination 
that  makes  our  actual  life  so  much  fuller  and  richer  and 
deeper;  it  is  from  this  source  that  all  our  ideals,  all  our  hopes 
and  longings  spring. 

The  Creative  W hen  a painter  sees  something  in  nature  that 
Impulse  strikes  him  as  beautiful,  it  stimulates  his  imag- 

ination and  feelings  and  thus  is  born  the 
creative  impulse  which  prompts  him  to  express  what  he  feels. 
He  tries  to  put  on  canvas  his  ideas  of  the  object  and  the 
feelings  which  he  experienced.  This  is  not  just  as  easy  as 
it  sounds.  I'he  artist’s  hand  is  not  guided  by  some  divine 
power,  and  many  people  who  are  really  artists  in  their  appre- 
ciation of  beauty,  cannot  adequately  express  themselves.  An 
artist  works  over  a canvas  a long  time  before  he  is  satisfied 
that  it  reveals  just  what  he  feels  and  many  a man  with  the 
spirit  of  the  artist  is  not  recognized  as  such  because  he  lacks 
the  ability  to  put  down  his  aesthetic  vision  and  feelings.  A 
person  with  a highly  developed  sense  of  beauty,  but  unable 
to  express  himself  by  means  of  paint  and  canvas,  will  experi- 
ence feelings  as  deep  and  satisfying  as  those  of  an  artist  when 
an  object  stimulates  him  to  expression.  An  example  of  this  is 
when  a connoisseur  acquires  paintings  and  sculpture  which  he 

11 


knows  are  expressions  of  the  artists’  true  feelings  communi- 
cated to  him,  and  places  those  objects  where  eveiy  time  he 
sees  them  he  experiences  those  emotions.  He  arranges  the 
pictures  and  sculpture  of  the  different  artists  in  such  a way 
that  each  individual  work  contributes  its  share  to  the  mak- 
ing of  a perfect  whole.  The  result  is  a wonderful  creation, 
comparable  in  its  unity  and  loveliness  with  the  separate 
paintings;  in  that  case  the  collector  is  the  artist.  Art,  in 
addition  to  being  an  expression  of  the  imaginative  life,  may 
serve  to  arouse  the  imaginative  life  to  action,  and  great  results 
may  follow  that  stimulation.  Even  scientific  facts,  which  we 
usually  think  of  as  belonging  to  our  actual  existence,  were 
first  discovered  by  means  of  the  imagination.  This  is  espe- 
cially true  of  the  embodiments  of  scientific  discoveries,  the 
aeroplane  for  instance.  Men  saw  birds  Hying  easil}^,  swiftly 
and  gracefully  and  they  soon  began  to  wonder  why  men  could 
not  Ha  . They  used  their  imaginations,  in  conjunction  with 
actual  facts,  to  work  out  schemes  that  would  prove  practical; 
after  man}^  failures  and  new  trials,  the  aeroplane  became  a 
reality. 

Habit  Adapted  We  know  that  works  of  art  interest  us  and 
to  Art  stimulate  our  imagination,  but  do  we  know 

just  why  Nearly  everybody  is  more  or  less 
sensitive  to  the  different  elements  in  a picture,  the  combi- 
nation of  which  elements  go  to  the  making  of  a work  of 
art.  Very  often  when  a painting  pleases  us  we  can  account 
for  the  pleasurable  emotion,  but  sometimes  we  do  not  know 
why  we  like  it  and  we  are  only  conscious  of  the  fact  that 
we  do  like  it.  If  we  are  not  particularly  interested,  we  are 
satisfied  to  say  that  we  like  a picture  or  do  not  like  it  and 
then  dismiss  the  subject.  Rut  if  we  are  sensitive  and  it 
stimulates  our  interest,  we  want  to  know'  wdiy  we  like  some 
paintings  and  do  not  like  others.  Often  we  find  that  upon 
close  ac(|uaintance  the  very  pictures  which  at  first  did  not 
appeal  to  us  contain  certain  elements  that  we  admire  greatl}' 
and  by  studying  them  intelligent!}'  and  using  our  imagination 
we  grow'  to  appreciate  their  fine  (pialities  so  much  that  we 
are  scarcel}'  conscious  of  the  elements  that  disturbed  us  at 
first.  In  that  way  is  developed  the  habit  of  looking  at  a 
picture  for  what  is  in  it. 


n2 


Beauty  and  Before  we  go  directly  to  works  of  art  to  de- 
Value  Defined  termlne  just  what  their  emotional  values  are, 
it  will  he  well  for  us  to  dehne  some  of  the 
terms  that  are  constantly  used  in  relation  to  art,  hut  gener- 
ally with  loose,  indefinite  meaning. 

“Beauty”  and  “value”  are  two  such  terms.  We  say 
beauty  is  a value,  but  what  do  we  mean  by  the  expression.^ 
The  most  satisfactory  way  of  defining  such  terms  is  to  find 
out  how  they  came  to  exist,  where  we  find  them  and  of  what 
they  consist  in  relation  to  experience;  in  other  words,  to 
what  do  they  correspond  in  our  lives 

In  eveiy-day  life,  when  an  object  has  a value  for  us,  we 
mean  that  it  satisfies  some  need  of  our  nature,  that  it  makes 
life  more  worth  while;  in  short,  it  is  a satisfaction  of  an  instinct. 
All  our  emotions  are  either  directly  or  indirectly  the  result  of 
instincts.  Instincts  exist  and  we  accept  them— we  do  not 
have  to  explain  them;  neither  do  we  have  to  account  for 
the  sense  of  satisfaction  we  experience  when  our  instincts 
are  allowed  free  play;  that  also  we  accept.  And  it  is  just 
this  sense  of  satisfaction,  this  feeling  that  an  object  exactly 
serves  its  purpose,  that  gives  it  a value  for  us;  it  need  not 
be  a useful  purpose,  it  may  only  give  us  a pleasurable  emo- 
tion, but  so  long  as  it  does  what  we  think  it  should  do,  that 
is,  has  a meaning  for  us,  it  has  a value. 

Art  and  life  are  inseparably  woven  together  and  their 
values  are  rooted  in  the  same  soil,  the  instincts.  But  one 
quality  that  distinguishes  art  values  is  that  we  try  to  express 
those  values  or  emotions  in  an  object;  that  is  we  objectify 
them.  W e embody  our  feelings  in  pictures  if  we  are  painters, 
m music  if  we  are  musicians;  we  make  the  expression  permanent 
so  that  we  have  it  not  only  for  today  and  tomorrow  hut  for 
future  years.  In  actual  life  when  we  experience  an  emotion 
our  impulse  is  to  act;  as  when  our  self-esteem  is  hurt  we  have 
the  impulse  to  fight,  ddie  difference  is  that  in  art  the  instincts 
endeavor  to  create  something  in  the  world;  in  real  life  they 
react  upon  and  modify  in  some  way  the  situation  that  aroused 
them. 

Instincts  as  noted  above  simply  exist  and  are,  by  their 
veiy  nature,  not  to  he  reasoned  about  in  justification  of  their 
existence;  we  know  that  they  are  implanted  in  every  human 
being  and  that  they  must  have  an  outlet,  that  they  cannot 
be  suppressed.  If  they  are  denied  natural  expression  they 

13 


will  find  some  other  means  of  freeing  themselves  and  whether 
their  expression  is  good  or  evil  depends  upon  the  channels 
into  which  they  flow.  Frequently  the  various  instincts, 
instead  of  working  together,  conflict  with  one  another,  as 
for  instance,  if  we  want  to  learn  stenography,  perhaps  our 
ability  to  learn  it  is  not  nearly  so  great  as  another  person’s 
and  very  soon  the  feeling  that  we  are  not  as  capable  as  some 
one  else  asserts  itself  and  says  we  cannot  do  it.  fhen  unless 
we  make  up  our  minds  that  we  can  and  will  do  it,  our  feeling 
of  inferiority  wins  the  day  and  we  do  not  do  it.  Fhe  positive 
self-feeling,  or  the  feeling  that  we  should  have  the  ability  to 
do  it  has  been  suppressed,  and  because  of  this  suppression  we 
become  dissatisfied  and  resentful,  and  unless  we  can  turn  to 
some  other  work  where  the  self-esteem  is  free  to  express  itself 
we  shall  never  get  over  that  feeling  of  resentment  and  it  will 
have  a bad  effect  on  our  lives.  All  the  troubles  in  the  world, 
big  and  little,  can  be  traced  to  conflicting  instincts,  and  the 
failure  of  one  of  them  to  secure  adequate  satisfaction. 

If  we  admit  that  instincts  are  not  based  on  reason,  then 
their  emotional  manifestation  and,  in  turn,  the  free  expres- 
sion of  that  emotion  are  also  non-rational,  then  art  itself  is 
non-rational  and  we  recognize  its  freedom  as  one  of  the  values 
of  art.  When  we  say  that  art  is  free,  that  it  is  not  hampered 
by  moral  or  useful  values,  we  do  not  mean  that  those  values 
are  never  expressed  in  art;  they  very  often  are  and  add  much 
to  our  pleasure,  but  they  are  not  essential  art  values. 

\ ery  often  when  we  look  at  a work  of  art  we  tr\'  to 
make  fidelity  to  nature  a standard  b\'  which  we  judge  of  its 
value,  and  condemn  it  if  it  does  not  look  like  a natural  object. 
Hut  for  an  object  to  be  beautiful,  to  have  aesthetic  value,  it 
does  not  have  to  be  true  to  nature.  A portrait  by  Modigliani 
has  enough  resemblance  to  his  model  to  enable  us  to  under- 
stand it,  but  he  does  not  copy  nature.  In  art,  fidelity  to 
literal  appearance  is  not  one  of  its  prime  necessities;  it  ma\' 
or  may  not  follow  nature  — that  makes  no  difference;  if  the 
work  of  art  means  something  to  us,  gives  us  a sense  of  satisfac- 
tion, it  fulfills  its  mission.  Literal  copies  of  nature  may  in 
themseh'es  arouse  pleasure  but  they  are  not  art,  their  expres- 
sion lacks  the  free,  personal  feeling  of  the  artist  himself. 

Neither  do  we  make  moral  judgments  a criterion  of  a work 
of  art,  since  art  must  be  free  to  follow  its  bent.  Moralin' 
constantl}'  has  in  mind  the  evil  that  is  present  or  that  ma}' 

1 1 


appear  in  the  future;  and  its  aim  is  to  avoid  evil.  If  morality 
is  made  a value  of  art  then  the  spontaneity  and  freedom  of 
art  are  lost. 

“ Rationality,  if  used  as  a conscious  guide,  also  impedes 
art  in  that  the  response  is  not  immediate.  We  experience  a 
great  sense  of  satisfaction  in  objects  that  are  primarily  rational, 
but  they  may  lack  the  freedom  and  spontaneity  that  charac- 
terize great  art.  Rationality  in  art  is  a by-product.” 

Art  values,  then,  have  the  qualities  of  non-rationality, 
immediacy  and  permanency  and,  since  beauty  is  an  art  value, 
it  must  necessarily  share  these  same  qualities  of  non-rational- 
ity, immediacy  and  permanency.  Beauty  and  value  mean 
the  same  thing  to  us;  an  object  is  beautiful  if  it  has  values 
that  satisfy  our  instinctive  longings,  both  by  the  way  it  is 
presented  and  the  feelings  it  arouses,  and  since  art  must  be 
objectified  and  made  permanent  in  one  form  or  another  a 
work  of  art  is  beautiful  insofar  as  it  gathers  together  its 
difierent  qualities  in  such  a manner  that  each  of  them  does 
its  utmost  toward  making  the  finished  object  satisfying. 

Form  At  this  point  it  will  be  convenient  to  define  accu- 
Defined  lately  the  term  “form”  as  used  in  relation  to 
art.  “Form”  is  the  unification  of  many  details 
toward  the  development  of  the  central  idea  so  that  the  art 
object  most  fittingly  represents  what  the  artist  wishes  to 
express.  The  details  of  a work  of  art  constitute  the  matter; 
“form”  is  achieved  when  those  details  are  unified.  Many 
people  use  “form”  when  they  mean  shape;  others  use  “form” 
in  the  sense  of  solidity  and  extension  in  three  dimensions;  that 
is,  when  a picture  is  so  composed  that  the  objects  look  as 
though  they  are  actually  solid,  when  depth  is  as  apparent  as 
length  and  breadth,  when  the  depicted  object  gives  us  the  feel- 
ing that  it  could  be  picked  up  and  handled  just  like  a natural 
object,  and  when  the  spaces  not  only  define  objects  but  give 
us  the  feeling  of  actual  intervals  or  extensions,  such  as  we 
experience  in  life. 

If  the  term  “form”  in  the  pictorial  arts  is  restricted  to  solid- 
ity and  extension  in  three  dimensions,  then  much  of  the  art 
of  the  past  as  well  as  the  present  must  be  regarded  as  inferior. 
Because  Chinese  pictures  are  essentially  flat,  do  they  arouse 
no  aesthetic  emotion.^  Shall  Pascin’s  pictures  be  condemned 
because  his  figures  do  not  have  the  feeling  of  solidity.^ 


“Porm”  cannot  be  confined  to  any  thing  so  limited;  we  have 
‘‘forms'’  in  infinite  variety;  in  fact,  as  we  have  seen,  form  is 
the  prmciple  that  unifies.  If  one  picture  pleases  us  more  than 
another  it  may  be  only  a question  of  personal  preference  and 
not  a question  as  to  whether  or  not  the  picture  has  “form.” 
If  we  are  specially  interested  in  drawing,  then  a Degas  will  be 
eminently  satisfying;  and  nobody  will  deny  that  Degas’ 
drawings  have  form;  that  is,  that  his  drawings  unify,  even 
though  his  figures  do  not  have  solidity.  Modigliani’s  “forms” 
are  flat  and  entirely  different  from  Kisling’s  “forms”  which 
seem  solid.  There  is  one  general  rule,  however,  governing 
“form”  in  art,  whether  it  be  pictures,  sculpture,  music,  drama, 
or  any  of  its  other  branches,  and  that  is  that  the  “form”  must 
be  suitable  to  the  material  (matter),  just  as  the  material  must 
be  selected  with  reference  to  the  “form;”  each  depends  upon 
the  other  and  no  art  is  possible  without  their  combination; 
matter  without  form  has  no  meaning  for  us,  and  form  with- 
out matter  is  too  abstract  to  interest  us;  in  their  combina- 
tion, matter  supplies  the  variety  and  form  the  unity,  which  is 
necessary  in  all  works  of  art.  An  example  in  real  life:  We  select 
materials  for  a dress  suitable  for  the  style  (pattern)  we  have 
in  mind  and  the  combination  of  the  materials  and  pattern 
creates  a satisfactory  gown.  If  we  have  all  the  materials  but 
do  not  use  them,  they  lose  interest  because  they  do  not  mean 
anything  to  us  as  a dress  — they  are  just  separate  articles  and 
lack  unity.  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  have  a style  in  our  mind 
and  no  material  with  which  to  make  the  dress,  it  is  a mere 
flight  of  fancy  as  far  as  that  particular  dress  is  concerned. 

Experience  In  actual  life  “form”  is  “the  characteristic 

Defined  impression  left  in  the  mind  by  experience”  and 

such  “forms”  are  possessed  by  every  human 
being,  d'hey  are  the  ideas  we  store  in  our  minds  of  objects 
or  situations  after  they  have  become  meaningful  for  us  as 
a result  of  our  experience,  our  direct  contact  with  them. 
P.xperience,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  is  not  a one-sided 
activity;  it  is  not  only  what  we  do  to  the  situation  but  also 
what  the  situation  does  to  us;  circumstances  change  us  as 
often  as  we  change  circumstances  and  unless  we  see  the  rela- 
tionship and  profit  by  the  results,  events  have  no  meaning 
for  us.  A child  trips  on  a rug  and  tumbles  down  the  stairs. 
If  he  realizes  that  it  was  the  rug  that  caused  the  trouble, 


he  will  avoid  that  rug  in  the  future;  hut  if  he  does  not  connect 
the  rug  with  his  tumble,  the  next  time  he  comes  down  the 
stairs  he  is  likely  to  fall  again  and  will  probably  repeat  the 
performance  until  he  realizes  that  the  rug  has  something  to  do 
with  it;  then  he  either  removes  the  rug  or  uses  more  care  in 
stepping  on  it. 

Our  forms  in  ever}'-day  life  may  become  mere  memories 
but  no  matter  how  faint  those  memories  are,  we  never  lose 
the  emotional  feeling  with  which  the  experience  itself  was 
surrounded;  life  is  so  much  a matter  of  feeling  that  there  is  an 
emotional  color  to  all  experience,  that  is  to  all  our  forms. 

The  Creative  An  artist  is  a person  who  can  express  his  experi- 
Artist  ence  (forms)  in  a suitable  material  so  that  they 

will  arouse  similar  feelings  in  the  observer.  The 
expression,  however,  is  not  an  exact  copy  of  the  object  that 
aroused  the  artist’s  emotion;  in  fact  what  makes  the  artist  a 
creator  is  his  ability  to  rearrange  his  experiences  into  new  and 
more  meaningful  forms  — that  is,  he  puts  on  canvas  certain 
aspects  of  nature,  as  he  conceives  them  by  the  use  of  his  imagi- 
nation. The  artist’s  clearer  and  larger  vision  is  of  utmost 
importance  to  most  of  us  since,  by  the  objectification  of 
what  he  feels,  he  makes  it  possible  for  us  to  see  beauties  that 
were  previously  hidden  from  us.  In  the  case  of  a landscape, 
not  only  do  we  enjoy  the  picture  with  its  wonderful  revela- 
tions and  the  artist’s  own  interpretation,  but  the  next  time 
we  see  a natural  landscape  we  view  it  with  more  feeling  than 
we  did  before,  because  the  artist  has  pointed  the  way,  has 
given  us  a clew. 

Communication  We  have  seen  that  a work  of  art  is  the  result 
to  Others  of  some  situation  in  life  that  stimulated  the 

artist’s  feelings  sufficiently  for  his  imagi- 
nation to  recast  that  experience  into  a new  and  more  mean- 
ingful form.  If  his  creation  reveals  to  us  the  broader  vision, 
the  deeper  insight,  the  more  intense  feelings  which  the  experi- 
ence meant  to  him,  that  is  explicitly  a communication  of 
similar  feelings  to  us.  d'hat  communication  is  the  function 
of  a work  of  art  if  it  is  of  any  social  value.  But  if  the  form  of 
his  expression  arouses  no  emotional  response  in  us  — that  is,  it 
has  no  meaning  for  us— it  is  because  we  have  never  had  a 
similar  experience  or  cannot  by  our  own  powers  imagine  the 

17 


artist’s  experience.  In  looking  at  a picture  it  must  be  a real 
experience  for  us,  if  it  is  to  be  worth  while.  The  picture  itself 
stimulates  our  senses,  but  it  can  do  no  more  than  that  unless 
we  see  a meaning  in  the  “form”  which  the  artist  portrays, 
unless  we  project  into  that  “form”  our  own  personal  feelings. 
To  intelligently  approach  such  work  requires  on  our  part  a 
mind  not  closed  to  new  forms  which  do  not  correspond  to  what 
we  have  previously  decided  are  standards  in  art. 

The  Greatest  The  trouble  with  a great  many  of  us  is  that 
Obstacle  to  when  we  once  get  a form  fixed  in  our  minds. 

Appreciation  we  never  want  to  change  it.  This  inertia  is 

a characteristic  of  human  nature.  Then  when 
a new  form  is  presented  by  an  artist,  it  does  not  corres- 
pond to  the  “form”  we  already  have,  and  instead  of  trying 
to  comprehend  the  new  form  by  using  our  .imagination,  we 
reject  it  and  say  that  it  is  not  art.  This  happens  constantly 
when  the  works  of  modern  artists,  music  as  well  as  paintings, 
are  presented  to  the  public  for  the  first  time.  If  instead 
of  rejecting  the  new  form,  we  examine  it  more  closely  to  hnd 
what  the  artist  means;  if  instead  of  turning  away  in  disdain 
we  use  our  imagination  and  try  to  get  the  artist’s  viewpoint, 
we  may  be  rewarded  by  a keener  and  deeper  insight  into  the 
joy  of  life,  d'hese  fixed  forms,  which  refuse  to  expand,  are 
accountable  for  most  of  the  adverse  criticism  we  read  in  the 
newspapers  and  magazines  whenever  new  forms  of  art  appear. 
Criticism  written  by  persons  who  should  be  sensitive  to  and 
interested  in  all  phases  of  the  art  about  which  they  write,  but 
who  have  only  a very  limited  knowledge  and  experience,  is 
sent  broadcast  and  serves  to  prejudice  many  readers.  I'he 
articles  are  not  m any  sense  criticism  of  art  but  a statement 
of  what  their  authors  in  their  ignorance,  see  and  feel.  If 
instead  of  expressing  their  personal  opinion  in  reference  to 
objects  about  which  they  have  no  knowledge,  they  would 
make  the  announcement  that  new  forms  of  art  have  appeared, 
and  then  allow  the  public  to  get  its  own  reactions  uninfluenced 
by  adverse  comments.  It  would  be  at  least  a step  in  the  right 
direction. 

Artists  paint,  or  write,  or  compose  music  because  their 
feelings  must  have  an  outlet  and  will  not  be  denied.  For 
the  same  reasons,  we  are  drawn  to  art;  it  is  an  Innate  desire 
to  live  vicariously  the  ideal  life;  to  remould  the  world  in 

IS 


conformity  with  the  heart’s  desire.  Adverse  criticism  is  pow- 
erless to  stiHe  this  creative  instinct;  it  acts  merely  to  delay 
recognition  to  the  creators  of  new  artistic  forms  and  to  rob 
us  of  joys  which  if  it  were  not  for  our  natural  inertia,  we  could 
appreciate  b}'  our  own  efforts. 

Characteristics  In  actual  life  we  do  not  pay  much  attention 
of  Aesthetic  to  our  incidental  feelings  or  emotions,  he- 
Feeling  cause  we  are  too  anxious  to  accomplish  what 

we  have  set  out  to  do.  When  trying  to  cross 
a street  where  there  is  traffic  congestion  all  we  think  about  is 
getting  across.  Normally  we  do  not  stop  to  consider  whether  we 
are  afraid  or  not.  In  the  imaginative  life,  where  we  are  not 
concerned  with  action  and  where  the  emotion  is  not  so  keen,  we 
have  time  to  think  about  our  feelings;  that  is  we  are  conscious 
of  our  emotion  and  we  can  examine  it;  find  out  why  we  feel  as 
we  do.  When  we  are  looking  at  a picture  all  we  have  to  do  is 
to  look  at  it,  take  it  in  and  enjoy  it,  we  do  not  have  to  act. 
In  this  enjoyment  the  relative  deficiency  in  the  intensity  of 
the  feelings,  as  compared  with  practical  life,  is  made  up  for 
by  its  increased  richness  and  stahilit}\ 

The  emotions  we  feel  in  actual  life  almost  always  have 
some  useful  value.  If  we  experience  fear,  we  turn  and  run; 
if  our  curiosity  is  stimulated,  we  investigate  the  cause.  Hut 
the  emotions  we  experience  in  the  imaginative  life  do  not 
serve  any  practical  purpose;  we  simply  enjoy  them  and  they  are 
all  the  more  enjoyable  because  they  are  so  free  from  any 
restrictions  or  consequences.  In  art,  then,  we  appreciate  the 
emotion  just  for  the  sake  of  the  emotion  itself  and  this  con- 
stitutes the  difference  between  the  aesthetic  feeling  and  the 
emotions  that  we  meet  in  the  affairs  of  every-day  life. 

What  to  Look  To  learn  what  qualities  a w^ork  of  art  must 
for  in  a Work  possess  in  order  to  arouse  the  aesthetic  feel- 
of  Art  ing,  we  will  turn  to  art  itself  and  examine 

it;  and  to  simplify  matters,  we  shall  confine 
ourselves  to  pictorial  art. 

When  we  look  at  a picture,  if  each  element  seems  to  combine 
with  the  others  to  form  a harmonious  whole,  then  the  picture 
has  unity;  and  unit}'  is  the  first  quality  that  a picture  must 
possess.  In  that  case  the  painting  satisfies  our  sense  of  beauty. 
If  the  picture  lacks  unity,  if  there  are  some  unrelated  details, 

19 


we  have  a feeling  that  something  ought  to  be  done  to  it  to 
make  it  more  satisfying.  Unity  may  be  illustrated  in  every- 
day life  by  a person  who  is  appropriately  dressed.  Suppose 
a girl  is  going  for  a walk,  if  she  wears  a short  walking  skirt, 
a sweater,  low-heeled  shoes  and  a sports  hat,  we  feel  that  she 
is  dressed  just  right  for  the  occasion.  But  suppose  she  wears 
a fancy,  elaborate  hat  instead  of  a simple  sports  hat,  at  once 
we  have  a feeling  of  dissatisfaction;  she  spoils  the  unity  of 
the  whole  by  just  one  detail  that  clashes  with  the  general 
effect. 

In  the  same  way  a picture  does  not  satisfy  us  if  the  draw- 
ing is  not  expressive,  or  the  color  is  not  appropriate  to  the 
subject,  or  the  figures  are  scattered  over  the  canvas;  it  does 
not  hang  together;  it  lacks  the  quality  of  harmony.  For  a 
picture  to  possess  unity  all  the  difl'erent  elements  must  be 
so  composed,  that  is,  related  to  each  other,  that  they  serve 
the  central  idea  and  form  a design  which  is  satisfying. 

d'he  next  quality  which  we  demand  in  painting  is  variety 
and  we  must  have  variety  in  order  to  arouse  and  hold  our 
interest.  A painting  must  have  enough  difl'erent  elements  in 
it  to  keep  our  attention;  we  like  the  color,  the  graceful  lines, 
the  arrangement  of  the  different  objects,  etc. 

Design  in  a picture  consists  of  the  harmonious  combina- 
tion of  many  different  elements  whose  relation  to  each  other 
impresses  the  observer  with  a sense  of  fitness;  the  picture  is 
then  said  to  have  “plastic  unity.’’  These  elements  are  — 

1.  Mass  — that  quality  in  the  object  portrayed  which 
seems  to  give  it  weight  or  enable  it  to  resist  pressure. 

2.  Graceful,  flowing  lines  and  the  arrangement  of  the 
lines  and  masses  in  such  order  and  sequence  that  they  give 
a sense  of  rhythm. 

3.  Spacf  — that  element  in  a picture  which  makes  us  feel 
that  it  is  not  just  a plain  surface,  but  that  there  are  intervals 
between  the  different  objects,  that  the}'  are  not  just  placed 
one  on  top  of  the  other.  Space  in  a picture  is  nothing  in 
itself;  that  is,  it  is  not  like  an  object  that  can  be  actually 
depicted,  but  the  illusion  of  space  can  be  so  contrived  that 
it  orders  the  objects  in  relation  to  one  another. 

4.  Light  and  Shade  — the  effect  obtained  by  the  contrast 
of  light  against  dark. 

5.  Color— which  functions  in  itself  and  in  relation  to  light 
and  shade. 


20 


Why  These  All  ot  these  attributes  which  stir  us  in  art  are 
Attributes  connected  with  the  necessary  conditions  of  our 

Move  Us  actual  life.  Mass  is  a physical  necessity  of  the 
real  world;  we  have  a feeling  of  being  able  to 
resist  pressure  if  we  get  in  a crowd;  a house  stands  firmly  on 
its  foundations  and  resists  rain  and  wind  and  will  not  fall 
down.  Rhythmical  movements  are  a part  of  all  physical 
activities:  It  gives  us  a thrill  to  see  eight  men  in  a boat  all 
pulling  together  in  perfect  time;  we  admire  a person  who 
walks  gracefully;  we  like  the  graceful,  rhythmical  movements 
of  dancing.  Space  is  something  we  make  use  of  almost  every 
minute  of  our  lives:  Ever}"  time  we  take  a step  we  uncon- 
sciously judge  the  distance  for  each  step;  if  the  girls  in  a 
factory  are  using  a corking  machine  they  know  just  how 
far  they  have  to  move  the  bottles  in  order  to  get  them  in  the 
right  position;  if  we  are  on  a high  elevation  we  judge  of  the 
distance  between  us  and  all  of  the  objects  within  our  line  of 
vision.  Light  and  shade  and  also  colors  are  so  much  a part 
of  our  physical  life  that  we  can  hardly  imagine  what  life 
would  be  without  them;  they  define  objects  for  us,  they  make 
the  different  objects  stand  out  and  help  us  to  get  a much 
more  definite  image  of  them;  they  bring  out  contrasts  between 
different  objects  and  in  different  parts  of  the  same  object. 

Color  Color,  apart  from  its  quality  of  defining  objects  for 
us,  has  a decided  emotional  value  in  the  pictorial  arts. 
Color,  in  itself,  is  a purel}^  sensuous  element,  but  it  readily  be- 
comes an  element  of  beauty  because  it  is  so  much  a part  of 
the  objects  which  we  look  upon  as  independent  of  ourselves 
and  our  visual  conception  of  those  objects  is  so  spontaneous 
and  easy.  We  never  get  the  clear,  definite,  easy  image  of  an 
external  object  through  the  other  senses  (taste,  touch,  smell, 
hearing)  as  we  do  through  sight,  and  just  because  our  visual  con- 
ceptions are  so  easy,  and  because  it  is  from  our  conception  of 
external  objects  that  we  obtain  our  aesthetic  emotions,  it  is 
evident  that  most  of  the  beaut}'  we  perceive  comes  through 
sight.  That  color  is  deeply  involv"ed  here  is  clearly  obvious. 

W e have  individual  color  stimulations  just  as  we  have  other 
individual  sense  stimulations.  Just  as  high  and  low  sounds  have 
their  different  feeling-tones  and  sweet  or  spicy  smells  have 
their  different  feeling-tones,  so  too  do  the  different  colors 
have  their  individual  feeling-tones;  some  colors  please,  others 

21 


repel.  Perhaps  in  the  near  future  color  sensation  will  be  devel- 
oped in  ordinaiy  people  just  as  sound  has  been  developed  into 
music;  the  color  organ  is  a step  in  that  direction.  So  far  that 
development  has  not  had  much  meaning  for  us;  hut  as  soon  as 
we  learn  to  discriminate  between  the  feeling-tones  of  different 
color  sensations  and  ally  those  sensations  with  similar  sensa- 
tions we  experience  in  other  fields,  then  colors  by  their  combina- 
tion acquire  form  and  meaning.  In  looking  at  paintings  by 
Giorgione,  Rubens,  and  Renoir  a connoisseur  can  experience 
forms  by  his  sensitivity  to  color  and  his  power  to  abstract  it 
from  all  other  elements  of  the  painting. 

That  colors  do  have  a meaning  for  some  people  may  be 
illustrated  by  the  case  of  a person  who  is  in  constant  contact 
with  modern  colorful  pictures.  The  brilliant  colors  become 
so  much  a part  of  the  pictures  themselves,  they  express  so 
much  of  joy  and  delight,  they  intensif}^  the  emotion  so  much, 
that  he  will  look  for  and  expect  color  in  all  works  of  art.  He  will 
enjoy  that  distinctive  quality,  closely  akin  to  color,  which  enters 
into  certain  forms  of  music,  literature  and  drama.  That  color 
meant  more  to  Renoir  than  a mere  appeal  to  the  senses,  is  shown 
by  his  use  of  it  as  a unifying  and  structural  element  m realizing 
a great  variety  of  harmonious,  plastic  forms. 


Emotional  and 
Sensuous  Elements 
Inseparably  Inter- 
woven 


It  appears  then  that  the  emotional  ele- 
ments of  art  are  so  closely  interwoven 
with  the  elements  of  our  physical  exist- 
ence, that  we  cannot  point  to  one  ele- 
ment and  say  this  is  sensuous,  and  to 
another  and  say  this  is  emotional;  each  element  is  both 
emotional  and  sensuous,  and  it  cannot  he  otherwise  because 
we  must  have  the  sensuous  elements  in  order  to  express  what 
moves  us  emotionally,  that  is  aesthetically.  It  must  he  em- 
bodied in  what  we  perceive,  that  is,  in  the  sensuous  elements. 
An  aesthetic  emotion  divorced  from  its  object  is  a contradic- 
tion in  terms. 

In  art  the  emotion  is  different  from  the  pleasure  of  the 
senses  alone,  in  that  it  is  free,  not  restrained  by  the  necessity 
for  action;  it  is  ideal,  not  hampered  h}^  material  things;  it 
is  eminently  satisfying.  And  we  often  feel  that  this  imagina- 
tive life  is  after  all  our  real  life  and  that  the  physical  life 
is  something  that  we  must  tolerate  in  order  to  enjoy  that 
of  the  imagination. 

a 


Personality  the  After  goln^  over  all  the  different  elements 
Essence  of  Art  that  unite  to  make  a work  of  art,  one  might 
Expression  say  that  nature  fulfills  all  these  conditions. 

d'hat  is  true,  d'he  appreciation  of  nature, 
however,  lacks  an  element  which  seems  essential  to  the  aesthetic 
experience  which  art  gives  us.  In  a work  of  art  an  object  is 
recreated  in  a new^  medium,  d'his  recreation  proclaims  the 
triumph  of  our  human  consciousness  in  bending  to  its  pur- 
poses an  alien  and  not  wdiolly  tractable  stuff  or  matter.  Our 
enjoyment  of  a work  of  art  is  in  part,  at  least,  a delight  in 
this  conquest.  Fhe  beauty  of  nature  involves  no  such  con- 
quest and  our  appreciation  of  it  is  therefore  necessarily  lack- 
ing in  an  essential  element  of  art  experience. 

Fhe  human  artist  uses  all  his  capacity  to  express  what  he 
feels;  he  has  a purpose  in  his  work  insofar  as  he  tries  to  put  on 
canvas  the  feelings  which  certain  objects  or  situations  stimulate. 
Nature  is  limited;  she  has  neither  the  power  nor  the  human 
capacity  to  make  a landscape  different  from  what  it  happens  to 
be.  A painter  can  often  improve  on  the  parts  of  nature  which 
are  not  beautiful.  A natural  landscape  may  lack  satisfying 
design  and  the  artist  when  he  paints  can  correct  that  fault.  "Fhe 
result  may  not  look  like  a natural  landscape  w hen  he  has  finished, 
but  it  will  probably  he  more  beautiful.  Whether  the  artist 
copies  nature  or  not  is  not  significant;  if  he  can  follow  nature 
and  still  put  into  his  picture  his  own  feelings,  his  own  person- 
ality, it  IS  a great  picture;  hut  if  in  order  to  express  his  feel- 
ings it  is  necessary  for  him  to  distort  natural  objects,  his 
creation  is  nevertheless  a work  of  art  and  he  is  justified  in  what 
he  does. 

All  people  have  the  possibilities  of  becoming  artists  who 
can  take  any  material  whatsoever  and  by  bending  it  to  their 
will  evolve  an  object  that  will  stimulate  pleasurable  emotions. 
If  a man  can  take  the  every-day  things  of  life  and  change 
them  in  such  a way  that  they  give  an  added  pleasure,  make 
life  more  livable,  he  is  in  some  degree  an  artist.  It  is 
the  development  of  sensitivity  to  this  recasting  that  is  the 
approach  to  art. 

Conclusions  Art  and  life  are  one  and  the  same  thing,  they 
cannot  be  separated.  Art  is  not  a phase  of 
life  that  transcends  life  itself,  a thing  to  be  approached 
only  on  sacred  occasions;  art  is  as  much  a part  of  reality 


as  the  imagination  is  a part  of  actual  existence.  Each  depends 
upon  the  other. 

Art  interests  us  because  its  subject  matter  is  life  and  the 
artist  has  made  it  more  interesting  than  reality  because  he 
takes  the  world  we  live  in  and  shows  us  certain  aspects  of  it 
that  we  would  not  ourselves  perceive.  He  takes  the  raw 
material,  the  phases  of  life  which  are  visible  to  everybody 
and  remoulds  them  into  “forms”  which  are  new  and  more 
full  of  meaning  to  us.  Works  of  art  satisfy  us  because  the 
values,  that  is,  the  qualities  of  objects  or  events  which  appeal 
to  us,  are  revealed  more  clearly  by  the  artist;  they  are  intensified 
because  tbe  artist  sees  more  deeply  into  their  meaning  and 
presents  them  to  us  as  he  sees  and  feels  them. 

Reality  is  something  that  touches  our  personal  interest  — 
politics  are  not  real  to  us  unless  we  know  something  about 
them;  war  is  not  real  to  us  until  we  come  in  contact  with  it. 
Reality  is  a quality  that  every  work  of  art  must  possess  — 
an  object  that  has  no  relation  to  human  experience  is  not 
art.  Art  must  present  to  the  observer  an  aspect  of  life  that 
the  artist  himself  has  experienced  and  it  must  be  presented 
in  such  a form  that  it  communicates  the  feelings  of  that 
experience  to  the  observer. 

A sense  of  beauty  is  so  common  to  human  beings  that  we 
accept  its  universality  just  as  we  do  that  of  love  or  hate  or 
fear.  Unfortunately,  this  sense  of  beauty  is  not  taken  seri- 
ously in  the  hustle  and  bustle  of  every-day  life;  it  is  not  given 
the  attention  and  the  guidance  that  it  needs  and  deserves, 
but  is  left  to  get  along  the  best  way  it  can.  If  it  is  not  ignored 
it  is  set  aside  as  something  apart  from  life;  something  strange, 
something  we  come  in  contact  with  only  occasionally.  The 
practical  demands  of  life  are  so  urgent  that  they  often  sup- 
press this  hunger  for  beauty;  or  traditional  and  irrational 
theories  so  smother  it  that  it  looses  the  freedom  which  is  so 
necessary  for  its  growth.  If  we  could  only  realize  that  life 
is  fundamentally  a matter  of  feeling,  that  we  look  upon  feeling 
as  more  Important  than  the  events  of  life  and  that  the  human 
desire  to  share  those  feelings  is  a normal  trait  of  positive 
social  value,  our  actual  world  would  more  nearly  approximate 
the  ideal.  All  human  activities,  when  not  merel}'  means  to 
an  end,  constitute  the  essential  material  ol  art.  It  is  the 
many  diverse  manifestations  of  those  activities  that  give  the 
charm  and  spirituality  to  life.  Art  is  simply  the  revelation 


of  those  activities  embodied  in  perceptible  forms  capable 
of  communicating  the  emotional  content  of  the  experience 
to  us. 

[In  the  foregoing  discussion  the  word  “emotionaT’  has 
been  used  as  descriptive  of  aesthetic  feeling,  principally  to 
conform  to  popular  terminology.  That  use  of  the  word  is 
justified  to  a certain  extent,  by  reason  of  the  probably  common 
origin  of  both  art  and  pure  emotion  in  the  instincts;  besides, 
a certain  quality  of  feeling-tone  seems  to  be  inherent  in  both 
pure  emotion  and  the  aesthetic  experience. 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  traditional  psy- 
chology has  confined  the  meaning  of  the  word  “emotion’’ 
to  the  distinctive  feelings  which  accompany  the  primary 
instincts,  like  fear,  love,  wonder,  anger,  disgust  and  similar 
elementary  states.  Hence,  while  we  cannot  speak  of  the 
“aesthetic  emotion”  in  the  same  sense  as  we  correctly  say  the 
“emotion  of  fear,”  there  seems  to  be  sufficient  justification 
to  employ  the  word  “emotional”  as  indicative  of  a certain 
quality  which  makes  aesthetic  feeling  something  distinctive 
in  itself,  and  yet  distinct  from  pure  emotion.  It  is  in  that 
relation  only  that  art  may  be  termed  an  “expression  of 
emotion,”  or  aesthetic  experience  spoken  of  as  “emotional 
feeling.”] 


REPRODUCTIONS 

The  accompanying  reproductions  illustrate  plastic  form 
in  a few  of  its  many  diverse  manifestations.  In  each  work 
represented  the  artist  has  rearranged,  into  new  and  emotion- 
ally-moving forms,  an  experience  which  he  himself  has  had  in 
life.  In  looking  at  these  particular  works  of  art,  a trained 
observer  will  participate  in  the  feelings  which  the  artist  experi- 
enced; and  he  will  recognize  in  the  work  the  artist’s  knowl- 
edge of  the  great  traditions  of  his  calling  and  a high  degree 
of  technical  skill.  To  appraise  works  of  art  according  to  any 
standards  short  of  a wide  and  genuine  experience  of  life  and 
a knowledge  of  the  principles  of  human  nature  which  form 
the  basis  of  art,  is  not  an  art  judgment,  but  an  expression  of 
prejudice.  And  art,  like  life,  is  too  complex  to  be  measured 
by  the  measuring-stick  of  our  prejudices. 

It  is  because  the  people  of  any  age  naturally  prefer  those 
art  forms  to  which  they  have  grown  accustomed,  that  an 
artist  of  genius  who  recreates  his  experience  into  new  forms, 
invariably  suffers  contumely,  derision  and  neglect,  at  first. 
In  the  latter  part  of  the  last  centur\^  Renoir,  Cezanne,  Sisley 
and  Monet  were  denounced  by  critics  and  the  public  as  char- 
latans and  adventurers;  today  each  of  those  artists  is  repre- 
sented by  numerous  examples  in  the  Louvre.  The  present- 
day  painters  who  imitate  those  formerly-derided  masters 
receive  the  prizes  at  exhibitions  and  are  acclaimed  as  great 
by  the  public;  in  other  words,  the  art  creations  of  a generation 
ago  have  become  the  accepted  standards  of  our  art  judg- 
ments of  today.  But  those  contemporary  artists  whose  work 
we  do  not  understand  because  they  express  their  experience 
in  new  forms  are  denounced  quite  as  vehemently  as  were 
Renoir  and  Cezanne,  less  than  forty  years  ago.  That  injus- 
tice serves  chiefly  to  rob  ourselves  of  the  pleasures  that  would 
come  could  we  but  grasp  the  meaning  of  the  artists’  revela- 
tions. Upon  this  point  let  us  read  what  was  written  by 
a man  whom  a great  American  writer  has  designated  as 
“undoubtedly  the  most  civilized  Englishman  living  today:” 

“How  slowly  and  painfully  the  function  of  aesthetics 
works  every  one  must  know  by  observing  the  aesthetic  judg- 

27 


ments  of  other  people,  if  not  by  recalling  his  own  experiences. 
I know  in  my  own  experience  how  hardly  and  subconsciously 
this  process  works.  In  the  matter  of  pictures,  for  instance, 
I have  found  throughout  life,  from  Rubens  in  adolescence 
to  Cezanne  in  recent  years,  that  a revelation  of  the  beauty 
of  a painter’s  work  which,  on  the  surface,  is  alien  or  repul- 
sive to  one’s  sensibility,  came  only  after  years  of  contempla- 
tion, and  then  most  often  b}"  a sudden  revelation,  in  a dash, 
by  a direct  intuition  of  the  beauty  of  some  particular  picture 
which  henceforth  became  the  clue  to  all  the  painter’s  work. 

“Schopenhauer  long  ago  pointed  out  that  a picture  should 
be  looked  at  as  a royal  personage  is  approached,  in  silence, 
until  the  moment  it  pleases  to  speak  to  you,  for,  if  you  speak 
hist  (and  how  many  critics  one  knows  wdio  ‘speak  hrst!’), 
}^ou  expose  yourself  to  hear  nothing  but  the  sound  of  your 
own  voice.  In  other  words,  it  is  a spontaneous  and  ‘mystical’ 
experience.”  (Havelock  Ellis,  The  Dance  of  Life.) 


CEZAXXK 

Portrait  of  Mme.  Cezanne 


^2‘) 


<* 


> 


I 


I 


I 


i 

? 

1' 

■ I 


RENOIR 

Bathers 


no 


CEZANxXE 

Landscape 


31 


CEZANNE 

Elowers 


33 


RENOIR 

Marchand  des  Pomnies 


CEZANNE 
Still  Life 


S3 


30 


CEZANNE 

Portrait 


87 


RENOIR 
Mother  and  Child 


•W  w- 


DEGAS 
Ballet  Dancers 


1 


I 


MANET 
Tarring  Boat 


K) 


■ S 


SISLEY 

Landscape 


II 


VAN  GOGH 
Smoker 


42 


I 


i 

* 


VAN  GOGH 
Landscape 


43 


DAUMIER 
The  W ater-Carrier 


44 


MONET 

Woman  Embroidering 


45 


DAUMIER 
The  Water-Carrier 


44 


• 


4 


MONKT 

Woman  Kmbroidering 

i 

i‘ 


i 

t 


i 


MATISSE 
Joy  of  Life 


40 


PICASSO 
Compos!  tion 


MATISSK 

Nude 


48 


1 


PICASSO 

Baby 


\ 


i 

I 


49 


! 

f 

f 


PICASSO 
Still  Life 


51 


ROUSSKAU  (Le  Oouanier) 
I'igure  in  Leindscaj^c 


5.‘i 


UNKNOWN -FRENCH 

Date  about  1840 


UTRILLO 

Landscape 


GLACKENS 
Pony  Ballet 


55 


ROUAULT 

Bust 


57 


1 


59 


MAURICE  FRENI )ERGAST 
Landscape 


0 

4 


1 


CO 


AFRICAN  SCULPTURE 
Before  10th  Century 


G1 


AFRICAN  SCULPTURE 
About  7th  Century 


SOUTINE 

Figure 


G3 


SOUTINE 

Landscape 


PASCIN 

Figure 


C5 


PASCIN 

Landscape 


dp:muth 

Factory  Tops 


C7 


CHARLES  FRENDERGAST 
Carved  Panel 


08 


KISLING 

Nude 


Cl) 


; MODIGLIANI 

, La  Jolie  Menagere 

i 

t 


I 


71 


MODIG 

Figure 


■ M 
- I 


LOTI  RON 
Harvesters 


73 


LAWSON 

Landscape 


DE  CHIRICO 
Fantasy 


75 


MARCOUSSIS 
Still  Life 


70 


HALICHA 
Still  Life 


77 


SEGONZAC  V, 

Landscape  -'i 


78 


I 


- 


